THE YEAR WAS 1969 and Malcolm Collins’ parents both had the same unquenchable lust for motorsport – a fact that put them on a collision course that culminated in a midnight rendezvous in a mud puddle atop Mount Panorama.

“Yeah, about 7 months later I was born,” explained Collins, who now works as a relief grader driver near his native Singleton. “Guess you could say there might’ve been a bit of petrol in that puddle. I’ve been keen on motorsport ever since, not just the V8s.”

Ever since he could remember, the 46-year-old has made the journey back to Australia’s most popular mountain race track to wait until there’s a crash and sink a few tins with old friends. All within a Ricky Ponting throw of the very same puddle he was conceived in.

Once considered to be a great honour among Holden Racing Team fans, being conceived in a mud puddle has lost some of its prestige with the advent of new technologies such as campervans and station wagons.

In fact, Collins said that while he planned on conceiving his own children in the family mud puddle, his wife was less than enthused.

“Yeah, look mate. She’s a classy woman, she went to Catholic school. There was no way I was getting her into the puddle sober. So we ended up just going to down on each other in the back of the Magna. Did the trick,” he said.

“I’ll be back next year for sure, mate. Hopefully I can get her in the puddle then.”